There were very few season ticket holders then, as the vast majority of the accommodation was standing, and the overwhelming majority paid in cash on the turnstiles. I presume the number of turnstile clicks provided a fairly accurate crowd figure. Nowadays absent season ticket holders are apparently included in the attendance figure. I don't believe they were 40 years ago, or, if they were, there wouldn't have been many of them.
Trev didn't get the career move he was hoping for did he, because I think he's since said he regretted leaving that Barnsley squad. And after a tribunal, I think we got a rubbish low amount for him, so none of us did well out of it. We were still a team to be reckoned with in season '82, but admittedly like you say, it wasn't quite the same after that.
I think that's maybe something that we tend to forget or ignore as footy fans. How a player or a managers move will affect his wife and kids as well.
As you say, all attendance figures are based on tickets sold (season and match) whether people attend or not. That’s why they are grossly exaggerated. If you attend home games you must have heard the laughter in recent years when our attendance figures are announced. They bare little relation to the number of fans who are actually at the game. Ironically, the attendance figures quoted in the 80’s used to provoke the same laughter but for the opposite reason. They were grossly understated.
I thought they might have been..... Like in the old days it was always colder or warmer yet the records were broken in 2010 and 2022. We always like to think it was better in the old days.